Riverside won't pay reward money in Dorner manhunt

As a cabin smoldered with the body of fugitive Christopher Dorner inside, politicians in a city that lost an officer to his rampage approved a $100,000 reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction.

Riverside's City Council voted with little discussion and no debate, even after being told the fugitive's demise was likely to be announced soon.

News of the vote was dwarfed by Dorner's death after a week on the run, but the city now says it won't pay its slice of the $1.2 million pledged by more than two dozen entities and elicited hundreds of tips.

Blame the requirement of an arrest and conviction for the latest wrinkle in the battle over the money that remains unpaid more than six weeks later. As a probe into who should get the cash continues, at least two of the 30 groups that backed the bounty have bowed out of the process.

Cobbled together quickly as the manhunt that began with the slaying of a couple in Irvine went cold on a snowy mountain where Dorner abandoned his truck, the hastily announced reward was never formally put in writing and was offered before the money was authorized or set terms for payment.

While Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Police Chief Charlie Beck have said they want to the see the reward paid, the board of the 64,000-member Peace Officers Research Association – a statewide union group – rejected paying its $50,000 share because Dorner, whose four victims included two police officers, died before he could be arrested or convicted, President Ron Cottingham said Friday.